Official DO's and DON'T for ASUS A8N-SLI (PREMIUM)

[welfarebum]

No, I don't know the cause. I replaced almost all my components including memory PLUS I replaced the motherboard 3 times. I believe that the A8N-SLI Premium is super finicky with memory. If you get it right, you're laughing. But if you don't, you are stuck with instability.

But after reading the discussions on the Asus web site with users who are practically going CRAZY with the same experiences I've had - and some even worse - I realized that I may still be fighting this motherboard in a month! It's time to walk away from this and get on with my life.

I just hope that my new DFI or whatever motherboard doesn't put me through the same hell. I'll let this forum know my results.

As an added note, I am a hardware design engineer. In my products (I was project manager for several pro-audio products used in high end recording studios), most customers were totally satisfied. But there were always a few customer who had nothing but problems no matter how good the design was. This is true of practically any product you buy. In the case of the A8N-SLI Premium, my hardware/software mix somehow puts me in that disgruntled minority group (which seems disproportionately large). I can't win so I'm walking.

Robert.

 

[doc2345]

Originally posted by: welfarebum

BYE BYE FOREVER, A8N-SLI Premium. And BYE BYE, Asus.

I've had my fill. After 2 months of ENDLESS crashing, blue screens, spontaneous reboots, BIOS flash failures, overclocking weirdness, exchanging the motherboard *3* times, swapping out practically all the other hardware, RMAing memory with OCZ, reinstalling windows, trying varieties of every driver, etc, etc, etc... I'VE HAD ENOUGH. I wouldn't even trust this board if I DID get it running.

Today, I went to the Asus web site and, in the forums there, there are dozens of people with the EXACT same problems that I've had. There are users who have tried EVERYTHING to get their systems stable. Have a look at the "RAM/crashing problems - A8N-SLI Premium" thread. Those guys have exerienced what I experienced. They, like me, did everything right but ended up with a nightmare that, as one guy said, is "DRIVING ME CRAZY".

My credit card insurance will refund my A8N-SLI Premium cost. Now the big question is what to buy in its place. I'm looking at the DFI LanParty nF4 SLI-DR.

Any suggestions?

Robert.

3 Bad Premium boards, hmmm.......Maybe you should get someone to build the box for you..........

 

[welfarebum]

There always has to be a smart a** like you. Here's hoping that someday, somewhere, sometime, you get some bizarre hardware problem that nobody can solve...

Robert.

 

[openwheelformula1]

In my case, I've built two systems w/ A8N SLI Premium and I've only used Corsairs modules. One w/ Twinx1204cmx3200c2 (samsung tccd), and one w/ value select. Both 1 gig dual channel. I even mixed tccds w/ mosel ICs in the first built and no problems. Perhaps there was some compatibilities issues between OCZs and the Premium. Honestly though, 3 different board and no solution usually indicates that the problem lies somewhere else.

well I hope your new DFI can solve the problems. You will probably be able to OC higher too. Please report back.

 

[welfarebum]

Here's why I did 3 motherboard swaps...

First Swap: After BSOD and spontaneous reboots every few hours no matter what I did for over a month, my retailer and I decided that it was likely a bad motherboard. So they exchanged it.

Second Swap: The problem remained. So it likely wasn't a bad board - but maybe a bad design. That's when I clued in that 4x512M of OCZ Platinum 2.0 2-2-2-5 was likley the problem. Too many people had problems with 4 sticks of memory. So OCZ RMAed my memory and I got 2x1G Platinum DDR500 3-3-2-8. I installed the memory, and found that 3-3-2-8 wouldn't POST. I found that 3-3-3-8 seemed to work, at least for a few minutes. I hadn't yet upgraded BIOS. But when I then upgraded to BIOS 009 (and got a message that the flashing was successful), the monitor went black 5 seconds later. Motherboard DEAD. No POST. I tried everything to bring it back to life, including a hard reset.

Third Swap: Okay, that was weird. I found lots of forums discussing the weird A8N-SLI Premium "No POST - Dead" problem. I thought it must be an isolated event. Maybe the BIOS file on floppy was corrupted. Or maybe the beta BIOS 009 was a problem. Or maybe the 3-3-3-8 DDR500 was too aggressive. Swapped the motherboard again and flashed BIOS 008 before playing with memory parameters. It flashed successfully then... DEAD. Once again, no POST no matter what!

So you can see how easy it was to go through 3 mobos!

Robert.

 

[anim84]

Hi. I'am gonna buy the Asus A8N-Sli-Premium, but i dont know about ram.
First i was thinking about OCZ Performance, but these are not at the Asus list over compatible ram.
I see that Corsair (TWINX2048-3200C2) is on the list, but i also heard that Corsair got a lot problems.

I can buy OCZ Performance. In Demark they cost 2.251DKK which is approximately $365.
The Corsair (WINX2048-3200C2) costs 2.486DKK which is approximately $400.


I'am not gonna overclock at all. CPU is Venice 3500+, and video card is Gainward 7800GTX.
So, what do you think is the best choice?

 

[Skott]

You are better off sticking with RAM ASUS lists for the mobo. I hear the Corsair XMS works quite well. I'd use just two sticks though since so many have had problems trying to use four sticks in this mobo.

 

[imported_Swad]

I am on the verge of putting together a new system and I plan to get the Asus A8N-SLI Premium. I was really hoping to get away with saving some money by getting OCZ instead of Corsair XMS this time, here. Seems some in here are having issues with OCZ, though, and the recommendation is to stay with only recommended memory (I can't find this list on Asus' site for this board). None the less, I see a few comments from some new egg buyers of this ram of not having issues with this OCZ RAM in this board, as well as this post right from the OCZ forums. Am I mistaken in thinking I should be just fine using this memor with the latest BIOS plus proper settings in the BIOS? Am I going to avoid higher chances of headache by just sticking with Corsair XMS? I have the stuff now and am very happy with it (Corsair) but it comes at a bit higher price. I guess if that higher price = peace of mind, maybe I should stay with Corsair in the new system.

 

[openwheelformula1]

Well I'd recommend staying away from OCZs if you are getting the A8N SLI premium simply to avoid headache.

wellfarebum: What are the spd setting of your new OCZ DDR500 modules? I hope the board didn't boot w/ DDR500. Even though unofficialy Venice supports DDR500 there could be problems still. Did you have a chance to memtest the new modules?

 

[Capt Caveman]

FWIW - I have a set of 1gb(2x512mb) OCZ Platinum PC4800 DDR600 and I can run it at spec of 300mhz w/out any issues.

 

[imported_Swad]

I think I'll just go with this Corsair XMS memory given I have similar in my current system in a 2x512MB pair setup and I have had no issues out of it thus far--top notch stuff. Probably better safe than sorry... I hate headaches.

 

[openwheelformula1]

wow that's some expensive $hit.

 

[Skott]

I hear the OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K RAM works fine for this mobo. Might want to check it out.

 

[imported_Swad]

Skott: actually, that's what I was initially looking into until I started seeing conflicting information about it plus the A8N-SLI Premium. Look at my post about 6 up and especially the second link. Seems OCZ feel it works fine with the proper settings on this motherboard. I really think this is the information I want to believe as obviously they are testing with this specific motherboard and they know (and share) the proper settings. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes I think supposed "issues" are just from improper settings.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: openwheelformula1
Well I'd recommend staying away from OCZs if you are getting the A8N SLI premium simply to avoid headache.

wellfarebum: What are the spd setting of your new OCZ DDR500 modules? I hope the board didn't boot w/ DDR500. Even though unofficialy Venice supports DDR500 there could be problems still. Did you have a chance to memtest the new modules?

Agreed with OCZ memory. On the other hand, it seems like all ICs for 1G modules are manufactured by Infineon, as seen in AT review here

I myself tried different sticks from OCZ, Kingston, and Crucial. They all worked fine.

 

[Micha]

Welfarebum, did you let know some OCZ guys about your problems? This OCZ PC4000 EB Platinum kit may be very tricky with A8N-Premium and be a source of all your actual problems... Try posting it here:
Link

Hope andyOCZ can help you

Pawel

 

[AndyAds]

I have just finished building my new PC, based around the A8N SLI Premium, and am having nothing except problems. I managed to install Win XP SP2 - the machine crashed 4 times in the process but "luckily" allows you to continue from the crash point so meant that it managed a full install. Now it usually crashes when the welcome message appears - or shortly after win xp loads. I have never managed to update the drivers as the machine crashes before this is possible.

I have tested the memory with MemTest86 and there are no problems. Plus, I can load into a CD based Linux distro with no problems/crashes whatsoever. What can I do???

My hardware is as follows:

Athlon 64 3200 Venice
Corsair TwinX 3200 CS2 1Gb x2
Q-Technology 400W PSU
Hitachi T7k250 SATA2 HD
Gigabyte 6600GT VGA

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: AndyAds
Q-Technology 400W PSU

Assumming there has been *no* error on your side, that's probably it. Have you made sure you checked everything right in the BIOS? What version are you using? Have you tried to update it?

lop

Edit: inserted *no*

 

[DJediMaster]

I just finished building a new system based off the A8N-SLI Premium. So far everything works great. I'm running with the 6.66's without the software ide drivers. The only problem that I am experiencing is the vcore. The vcore seems to hover around 1.472 and 1.488 when I was looking for 1.49. The system is perfectly stable and I prefer the premium board's layout over the newer A8N32-SLI board.

3800+ X2 Toledo @ 2.6
Asus A8N-SLI Premium rev. 1.02 with 1008 bios
Generic 2x512 DDR400
Asus EN7800GTX
WD 160gb SATA hd
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
NEC 3500A
Antec TruePower 430 (without the 20-24 pin adapter)

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: welfarebum

Here's why I did 3 motherboard swaps...

First Swap: After BSOD and spontaneous reboots every few hours no matter what I did for over a month, my retailer and I decided that it was likely a bad motherboard. So they exchanged it.

Second Swap: The problem remained. So it likely wasn't a bad board - but maybe a bad design. That's when I clued in that 4x512M of OCZ Platinum 2.0 2-2-2-5 was likley the problem. Too many people had problems with 4 sticks of memory. So OCZ RMAed my memory and I got 2x1G Platinum DDR500 3-3-2-8. I installed the memory, and found that 3-3-2-8 wouldn't POST. I found that 3-3-3-8 seemed to work, at least for a few minutes. I hadn't yet upgraded BIOS. But when I then upgraded to BIOS 009 (and got a message that the flashing was successful), the monitor went black 5 seconds later. Motherboard DEAD. No POST. I tried everything to bring it back to life, including a hard reset.

Third Swap: Okay, that was weird. I found lots of forums discussing the weird A8N-SLI Premium "No POST - Dead" problem. I thought it must be an isolated event. Maybe the BIOS file on floppy was corrupted. Or maybe the beta BIOS 009 was a problem. Or maybe the 3-3-3-8 DDR500 was too aggressive. Swapped the motherboard again and flashed BIOS 008 before playing with memory parameters. It flashed successfully then... DEAD. Once again, no POST no matter what!

So you can see how easy it was to go through 3 mobos!

Robert.

Wow ! I'm off the boards for a few days, and what a nightmare !

I'm really sorry we didn't get this working - I still suspect there was a chance to get this squared away.

If you do decide to go ahead and get the DFI - good luck. The BIOS in that thing (plus other DFI issues) scared me away that one.

Again, sorry we didn't get this one, it was nice working with you on this.

 

[lopri]

DJM,

Yes the VCore problem is a very well known by now. In my case, I might be get away with 1.425 or 1.4375 for 250x11, but thanks to the fantastic VCore fluctuation, I have to give at least 1.475V for stability test (dual prime 12h+), and for 24/7 I use 1.4625V.

I tried setting it at 1.5V just to see what happens, it bounces anywhere between 1.442V~1.550V(!). At least when set at 1.4625V, it tends to move only around 1.455V~1.478V. (BIOS 1009.001)

lop

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: AndyAds
I have just finished building my new PC, based around the A8N SLI Premium, and am having nothing except problems. I managed to install Win XP SP2 - the machine crashed 4 times in the process but "luckily" allows you to continue from the crash point so meant that it managed a full install. Now it usually crashes when the welcome message appears - or shortly after win xp loads. I have never managed to update the drivers as the machine crashes before this is possible.

I have tested the memory with MemTest86 and there are no problems. Plus, I can load into a CD based Linux distro with no problems/crashes whatsoever. What can I do???

My hardware is as follows:

Athlon 64 3200 Venice
Corsair TwinX 3200 CS2 1Gb x2
Q-Technology 400W PSU
Hitachi T7k250 SATA2 HD
Gigabyte 6600GT VGA

Lots of possibilities here.

First, run through your BIOS and turn off all the Overclocking options. They default to Auto, and on my first one it wanted to run my CPU at 5000+ MHz :Q - not gonna happen. You may need to do this for you Memory settings as well.

Lock your PCI (not PCIex) to 33.33Mhz. Options here are to track CPU speed, HTT, or 33.33 MHz I believe.

Make sure you have all your power cords plugged in. You have the 24 Pin, and then there is a 4 Pin connector that goes up by the CPU.

What are all the devices you have connected ? Primarily PCI cards you have plugged in.

How about the USB and 1394 Connectors ? Make sure they're not cross connected (big no-no). I don't even have my 1394 plugged in - no use for it at this time.

That should be a good start of things to look over.

 

[imported_Swad]

What's the deal with the nVidia software IDE drivers? I keep seeing people mention not to install them, but I never see why not to. Can anyone point to some information about this? I'm really curious as I know with my current system and my old ATA drives (no SATA yet) that it helps out performance tremendously.

Currently on an nForce2 chipset--will have A8N-SLI Premium this week. I want to iron out all the details before I put this system together so I'm not stuck trying to figure out some of the caveats.

edit: One other thing. I thought I read somewhere that the manual for this board gave wrong information on where to put the two sticks of RAM for proper dual channel config. Which slots do you plug 2 sticks of RAM into if that's all you have? (2x1024MB)

Thanks!

edit2: found some threads indicating people have historically had some corruption issues with nVidia IDE drivers. I guess I have been fortunate as I have used these drivers for almost 3 years on my nForce2. If there is no real performance problems using the default drivers (not nVidia), then I don't have any real issue not using them. Also, I think it was back with Windows XP (pre SP1 and SP2) that I realized I needed teh nVidia drivers and that they helped performance. That may no longer be the case.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Swad
What's the deal with the nVidia software IDE drivers? I keep seeing people mention not to install them, but I never see why not to. Can anyone point to some information about this? I'm really curious as I know with my current system and my old ATA drives (no SATA yet) that it helps out performance tremendously.

Currently on an nForce2 chipset--will have A8N-SLI Premium this week. I want to iron out all the details before I put this system together so I'm not stuck trying to figure out some of the caveats.

edit: One other thing. I thought I read somewhere that the manual for this board gave wrong information on where to put the two sticks of RAM for proper dual channel config. Which slots do you plug 2 sticks of RAM into if that's all you have? (2x1024MB)

Thanks!

edit2: found some threads indicating people have historically had some corruption issues with nVidia IDE drivers. I guess I have been fortunate as I have used these drivers for almost 3 years on my nForce2. If there is no real performance problems using the default drivers (not nVidia), then I don't have any real issue not using them. Also, I think it was back with Windows XP (pre SP1 and SP2) that I realized I needed teh nVidia drivers and that they helped performance. That may no longer be the case.

I believe the problem the IDE Drivers are causing is primarily with SATA Drives (could be wrong)and the NForce4 Chip. At least I know the one time I had them installed it caused my SATA Drive to be listed as a removable drive :disgust: , and eventually it caused the Drive to disappear altogether.

Slot 1 & 3 (or 2 & 4) are what you should use for Dual Channel, I believe they're color coded (been awhile since I looked) so as long as you stick them in the same colored slots you should be fine.

 

[doc2345]

It's 'bout time to rename this thread to the "Official DO's and DOPE'S for ASUS A8N-SLI (PREMIUM)...... Geezzz! Flame away!